Rare species on sale in Indonesian markets

Rare species on sale in Indonesian markets

Lely T. Djuhari, Associated Press, Jakarta

Peering out from a filthy cage filled with animal droppings
and rotting bits of food, the siamang gibbon stretches out a long
black hairy arm to grab a banana offered by one of the four men
who keep this endangered primate imprisoned while they search for
a buyer.

These animal traders are part of an illegal multimillion
dollar business in Indonesia, which has more endangered primates
than any other country. Animal rights activists say Jakarta's
Pramuka Market - a five minute walk from where the siamang gibbon
is held in a ramshackle house stacked with cages - is Asia's
largest black market for rare animals.

"You want baby orangutans?" said a market vendor who
identified himself only as Iwan. "How about a siamang gibbon?
Better be quick, I've sold five already today.

"If there is anything you want, we can get it for you," Iwan
added.

The total value of Indonesia's illegal animal trade is
unknown, but animal activists say hundreds of creatures are sold
each month despite their protection under the Convention on
International Trade on Endangered Species, known as CITES.

Demand for rare animals is great; they are sold as pets or
valuable collectors' items and for use as food or medicine.
Typical is the siamang, the largest of the gibbon apes, with long
arms for swinging in trees. The cute siamang babies are popular
as pets, but owners often abandon the full grown animal, which
can be a meter tall (three feet) and has a loud piercing cry.

Environmentalists say a shrinking habitat also threatens
Indonesia's rare species. The lush forests are rapidly
disappearing due to urban expansion and uncontrolled logging.
Corruption and political instability further compromise animal
safety.

Often the wild animals wind up at the Pramuka Market, which
covers an area the size of a football field in East Jakarta.
Established in 1967 as a bird market, it has sold all manner of
creatures since the 1980s. Overlooking it is a remnant of failed
campaigns to combat the illegal trade - a faded billboard
threatening sellers and buyers of endangered animals with five
years imprisonment.

Market officials insist that only legal animals are sold, but
shady transactions regularly take place in the markets's back
alleys.

"The illegal trade of endangered animals is rampant here,"
said Will Smith, an activist with the Liechtenstein-based Gibbon
Foundation, which focuses its efforts on Indonesia.

Animal activists face a big challenge in Indonesia. Protecting
endangered animals is not a major concern of officials, and
illegal items made from animals are openly marketed.

Department stores display jewelry and knickknacks fashioned
from giant turtles and elephants' tusks, and hawkers approach
drivers at busy downtown intersections, offering terrified
animals like the cuscus, a small marsupial, for as little as
250,000 rupiahs (US$25).

Newspapers and online media sites publish classified ads under
"collector's items" offering rare animals or just parts of them.

A stuffed Sumatran tiger has one of the largest pricetags at
around $2,500. Even pieces of this magnificent creature are for
sale - tiger's penises are sold as aphrodisiacs, and ground up
bones, claws and teeth go into traditional Chinese remedies for
arthritis and rheumatism.

The World Wide Fund for Nature Indonesia is planning a major
campaign starting next month to raise awareness of endangered
animals, focusing on the plight of the tigers along with as
orangutans and rhinoceroses.

The fund says an average of 33 Sumatran tigers are killed
every year and the species could become extinct by 2010. The
Javan Rhino, once abundant in Southeast Asia, is now on the
critically endangered list. Hunters slaughter it merely for its
horn, a valued ingredient in Asian medicine.

Fewer than 20,000 orangutans are left in Indonesia because
hundreds of the orange-haired apes are smuggled each year to the
United States and other industrialized countries, fetching up to
$30,000. Baby orangutans are the most popular - and most
vulnerable. Smugglers usually ship five babies together, sedated
in a cardboard box, to ensure that at least one survives the
long, arduous journey by boat.

Chairul Saleh, a senior campaigner for the nature fund, said
the new campaign of information about rare species must go beyond
the usual cooperation with authorities to catch smugglers.

"We want to cut off the trade from the consumer side," he
said. "We want to make endangered animals deeply unfashionable."

On the net: http://www.cites.org/ http://www.wwf.or.id/
http://www.gibbon.or.id/